​The UDairy Moo Mobile served customers on Market Street during the opening festivities.

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Editor's note: For more photos of the UD Creamery opening, visit UD in Photos.

The University of Delaware’s UDairy Creamery officially launched its
first off-campus location on Tuesday, May 23, with a block party on the
800 block of Market Street in downtown Wilmington, Delaware, outside the
new Creamery Market Storefront.

The two-hour block party had everything from free ice cream, tributes
from dignitaries, an elementary school drumline medley, UD
cheerleaders, YoUDee and a poetry reading about ice cream from one of
UD’s Associate in Arts students.

Over the two-hour time period, the Creamery handed out 1,500 scoops of free ice cream to those in attendance.

UD President Dennis Assanis kicked off the festivities by welcoming
everyone to the storefront and stressing how the new Creamery Market
will give the Associate in Arts students a hands-on learning experience
while also bringing a sweet treat to the city.

“We are proud to share with you not only our ice cream but also our
students,” Assanis said. “At the University of Delaware, we say that
students are our product and ice cream is just the byproduct. We are
really thrilled that our students from our Wilmington Associate in Arts
Program around the corner are going to be the people who will be the
part-time employees involved in the production and serving of the ice
cream.

“We also don’t just scoop the ice cream here, we actually make it,”
he continued. “Experiential learning is a very big part of what we teach
our students at the University of Delaware, and it’s all about hands-on
learning, literally, and you will be the beneficiaries of the
application of the learning today.”

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​Celebrating the opening of the UDairy Creamery on Market Street in
Wilmington are (from left) Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki, Michael Hare
of Buccini/Pollin Group, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Dean Mark Rieger, UD President Dennis Assanis and Delaware Gov. John
Carney.

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Delaware Gov. John Carney said the revitalization of the city of
Wilmington was of the utmost importance to his administration and
getting attractions like the University of Delaware on the Market Street
Mall will help the city to be successful.

“We need some ice cream downtown number one, and we need business
here on the Market Street Mall,” said Carney. “We’ve been working since I
was sworn in as your governor three and a half months ago on doing
everything that we can to strengthen the neighborhoods in our city, to
strengthen our central business district and to make Wilmington strong
and vibrant again. You are the folks that are going to make it happen by
coming down here on the Market Street Mall, so thank you for coming
today.”

Wilmington Mayor Michael Purzycki, a 1967 UD graduate, said it is
truly exciting to have the Creamery in Wilmington, both because ice
cream is an admitted guilty pleasure and it is a unique attraction for
the city.

“Everybody wants the city to grow in big leaps and bounds, but the
city grows in small increments of quality,” Purzycki said. “It’s the
small things that make a city great. It’s the little individual things,
the things that are special that nobody else has that make your city
great, and we welcome you with open arms.”

Michael Hare, senior vice president of the Buccini/Pollin Group
(BPG), said his firm couldn’t be prouder to have UD as a partner. BPG
has been the driving force behind the revitalization of downtown
Wilmington and its historic Market Street corridor. The firm partnered
with UD to bring the Creamery to Wilmington and owns the site where the
Creamery Market Storefront is located.

“The key to getting people to want to work in Wilmington, to want to
live here, is to add amenities for our residents who are already here
and to make this a compelling city is to bring exciting attractions to
our city, and this is an exciting attraction,” said Hare. “We in the
city have been working for years to expand the University’s footprint,
and I can’t think of a more delicious way to do that. On behalf of the
lactose-intolerant in our community, myself included, this is a risk
worth taking.”

Hare noted that his uncle majored in agriculture at UD and milked the
cows on UD’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR)
campus. He said it was a privilege to watch the “full trajectory of cow
to cone now that this ice cream is in Wilmington.”

CANR Dean Mark Rieger highlighted the UD students who helped put
together the business plan for the Creamery Market Storefront,
specifically Keith Medwid, a senior majoring in food and agribusiness
marketing and management and the assistant manager intern at the
creamery.

“Keith Medwid worked at the Creamery on campus for two years, and he
is going to go on to a wonderful career in agribusiness or food science
because of his experience in the Creamery,” said Rieger. “The reason
that we’re here, and the product of that place across the street is a
better educated student.”

Rieger also thanked Melinda Shaw, director of Creamery operations,
LeeAnne Ahamad, manager for the Creamery’s Wilmington location, Jen
Rodammer, manager of UDairy’s Newark location, and Grace Wisser, CANR
event coordinator, for all their work with the Creamery and with putting
the opening event together.

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Associate in Arts student workers

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​Eager customers line up to sample UDairy's wares, dished up by Associate in Arts program students.

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The new location provides a great job opportunity for many students in the University’s Associate in Arts program.

“It’s my first real day and I already love it,” said Ameerah Taylor, a
rising freshman planning to major in early childhood education.

She and her fellow co-workers agreed that UDairy’s willingness to work with their schedules made their lives a lot easier.

Other perks of the job include free ice cream, getting to suggest new flavors and camaraderie.

Derek Simpson, a rising freshman planning to major in biology, said
that he had taken classes with some of his co-workers, but working with
them in this setting was already bringing them closer together. “When
you’re producing ice cream, you get to know people,” Simpson said.

Blaise Cristello, a sophomore planning to major in criminal justice,
said that he was most excited to see what new flavors come out of the
new location. While he could not disclose the new ones, he was happy to
serve the new flavor that had been created for the grand opening: 8th
and Market, which was inspired by the new UDairy location and consisted
of chocolate ice cream, chocolate cookie swirls and mini-marshmallows.

Medwid said that he is excited to see the impact that the new UDairy Creamery will have.

“I think it’ll be good to get fresh food in here because we’re going
to be selling UD produce,” Medwid said. “And I think it’s just a more
welcoming face,” he added.

More than UD produce, the creamery will be selling locally sourced
foods with a menu that will include grilled cheese using bread from
local bakeries and eventually cheese that will also come from UD,
cheeseburgers, and salads that feature UD’s produce.

The UD Associate in Arts Program held an ice-cream themed poetry contest in conjunction with the event.

The winners were Christian Wills, first place, and runners-up Nolan O’Neill and Daniel L.L. III.

Wills read his winning poem, “Creamery Sensation,” to the crowd
ending with the line: “Every cup, every cone, we make it with pleasure,
In hopes that you love our ice cream we treasure.”

The Elbert-Palmer Elementary School drumline also was on hand for the
event, playing an impressive set that included everything from
classical music to a royal-themed contemporary line-up of hits from
Prince, Queen and Michael Jackson.